Patagonia

I woke up late today, and thought, I'm in Patagonia: a day here without an adventure is a day wasted. I waited out the mid-day heat and left (walking) from an apartment on the edge of Coyhaique (Chile) to climb a nearby mountain. Even at 3PM it was 80° out. Photo one is the route. I need to figure out the name of the mountain, but it's in between the Makai, to the right, and a range they call El Divisidero behind on the left. The route starts on the right. It's mostly steep hiking up slides, but includes a 30' solo up nice rock and an 80' solo up grade 5 crumbly rock. Above that is mixed animal paths and exposed crumbly ridge. Decent was via rock slide and bush-wack on the east side. There are no real paths, except those made by sheep. Fortunately sheep take the good routes, unfortunately sheep are 3' tall.

60' up the crux, the rock in my right hand split in two and I realized that I was going to have to find another route down. That added an element of excitement to things.
Looking back at the route and crux:


The summit was beautiful, but time there was short as I needed find a safe decent route. I opted for a rock slide that worked well. The bushwack below the slide was brutal. In Chile, they have these stiff burrs that really get you, and they're everywhere.
Summit shot:
The climb was great. Made it back around 8:30 (still light out). Here's some cool lichen I saw on the way down. I've never seen it before (in US or here in Chile), but there are so many lichen species, chances are slim that it's new. If you know what species it is, let me know.
Also, check out www.seascapemodeling.org/patagonia for more pictures from my trip down here. I'm working near the Melimoyu Volcano for the Austral Summer as the scientist in residence for the Melimoyu Ecosystem Research Institute.